Notre Dame football: For idle frosh, it's scout's honor

Notre Dame quarterback Gunner Kiel looks back to the scoreboard as he huddles up with the team during a NCAA college football game on Saturday, Sept. 8, 2012, at Notre Dame. (SOuth Bend Tribune/JAMES BROSHER)

SOUTH BEND — The thought of Notre Dame linebackers Dan Fox and Carlo Calabrese raising their arms to fire up the crowd is pretty easy to imagine. Big play coming up. Noise needed.

Fox, however, could remember at least one instance in which an important detail was absent.

“There was no one around,” Fox explained. “I remember freshman year, we’d pretend there was a crowd and we’d try to get each other excited for it.”

Fox’s example came from the 2009 season, when both were sitting out to preserve a season of eligibility (a.k.a. redshirting). As scout team members, Fox and Calabrese did their best to simulate game experiences during practice, with the knowledge that they wouldn’t play until the next season.

“It was fun though,” Fox said.

For some freshmen on this year’s team, the fun comes on Saturdays. For others, it’s reserved for practice, in much the same manner Fox and Calabrese parlayed their scout-team time into future starting assignments.

Of the 17 members of the current freshman class, nine have seen game action. Some, such as cornerback KeiVarae Russell, have become key cogs in Notre Dame’s 9-0 season. Others, such as offensive tackle Ronnie Stanley, have seen limited duty, although Stanley could become a big, big part of the national title push if an injury were to occur.

The other eight, however, are spending their freshman seasons on the sideline for a number of reasons. Some may need to gain weight and strength before they’re ready to compete at the college level. Others may be facing a logjam at their position. For a few, it’s a combination of the two.

Regardless, those eight are part of an unbeaten team chasing a national title, but their contributions, at least the on-field part, will be limited to practice.

“I would say they’re probably feeling a little bit, ‘I wish I was part of it, but can’t wait to contribute. Because we’re going to be pretty good next year and the year after and the year after,’” said ND coach Brian Kelly.

“So I think there is a little bit of both of those things running through their mind. ‘Boy, it would be neat to be part of this, but I’m really excited about the future.’”

Fox enrolled at Notre Dame in the summer of 2009, intent on helping his new school in any way he could. Not long before the first game, however, then-linebackers coach Jon Tenuta sat him down and informed him that he would spend the season on the scout team.

“Of course you’re devastated,” Fox said. “At the time, you’re like, ‘Man, I want to be out there.’”

Irish left tackle Zack Martin also enrolled at Notre Dame in 2009. His expectations for playing that fall, however, were a bit different than Fox’s. At 6-foot-5 and 285 pounds, Martin had an inkling that he wasn’t yet big enough to compete, and that an extra year at the back end of his college career would help in the long run.

Still, Martin, now 304 pounds and a starter in ND’s last 35 games, struggled with watching.

“It was hard,” he admitted. “Like most guys do, they come from high school where you’re a three-year or four-year starter in high school and you’re not used to sitting on the sidelines. And then you come into college and you don’t move off the bench the entire year. That’s the hardest part, is just watching the game. I’d never watched a game from the sidelines my entire life, and my whole freshman year, that’s what I was doing.”

Fox, however, realized that work needed to be done in the weight room.

“I wasn’t physically ready when I first got here, so that’s something that really helped me,” he said. “I’m glad I took a step back, got in the weight room and got my body right.”

Fox said he went to veterans John Ryan and Brian Smith for advice, and last year he was able to help backup linebacker Jarrett Grace, who sat out his freshman campaign of 2011. Martin has served as a sounding board for young players, including younger brother Nick, now a sophomore.

“That’s what I try to tell all the young guys — the first year is tough, but it’s a huge year to get bigger and stronger in the weight room, to kind of learn the speed of the game, learn how the game is played on this level and really give the defense a look (as an offensive scout team player) and get better going against the best players on the team,” Martin said.

Still, there was the knowledge that they were scout team members, and playing time wasn’t happening that year. Coaches, however, helped.

When the scout team players dressed for home games, it wasn’t social hour on the sidelines. Martin recalled the assistants having them closely watch the action on the field in order to help the starters when they came to the sidelines.

“We were engaged,” Martin said.

Dressing for home games also helped the redshirting players make the transition to playing in front of a large crowd, and get used to what happens on Saturdays in South Bend.

“It was a lot of fun, just going out there and getting used to it and seeing all the fans and the gameday cyclone,” Fox said. “It’s a whole different ballgame than high school, obviously, so that’s something you’ve got to get used to too.”

Road games, when some classmates and many teammates were boarding a flight for a new city, were a bit tough. “It was a little disappointing,” Fox said. “You want to go see the stadiums and everything, but you realize that you’re not ready to contribute. You’re not too mad.”

Because a number of the players in that class redshirted, they often spent Saturdays together at a dorm room or at the house of an older teammate who was on the travel squad.

“We made the most out of not traveling,” Martin said.

Fox, who started all 13 games last season and has started five this year (Calabrese was the starter in the other four), knows the redshirt year was in his best interest in the long term.

“You wanted to get out there and contribute to Notre Dame,” he said. “You do though, but it’s on the scout team. That’s something that really helped develop my game.”